A poll conducted yesterday evening, hours after Republican State Rep. Kathleen Peters filed to run for Congress, found that she will face an uphill battle to win the District 13 seat, but there’s still room for her numbers to grow.

That's because when St. Pete Polls surveyed nearly 600 registered Republicans, asking them whether they would vote in the Republican primary for David Jolly, Peters, or someone else, nearly a third responded "someone else."

Jolly, a Washington lobbyist who also was a longtime aide and general counsel to the late U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who previously held the District 13 seat, garnered 39 percent of poll respondents' votes. And Peters, a former mayor of South Pasadena, got 17 percent.

More than anything, Jolly and Peters’ numbers are probably a reflection of their limited name recognition.

Jolly's name has never appeared on a ballot in Pinellas County. And Peters, whose District 69 seat includes many of the county's beach towns, is not as well-known as many of the other elected officials that were initially expected to get in the race. Hence the large number of people in favor of "someone else."

Below are more results from the same automated phone survey. The top two questions were asked of over 1,000 active voters:

If the special election for the US Congressional district 13 seat were held today, and the candidates were Kathleen Peters and Alex Sink, who would you vote for?

Peters: 30.7%

Sink: 49.7%

Undecided: 19.6%

If the candidates were David Jolly and Alex Sink, who would you vote for?

Jolly: 34.9%

Sink: 49.3%

Undecided: 15.7%

REPUBLICANS ONLY: In the Republican Primary for the US Congressional district 13 seat, would you vote for David Jolly, Kathleen Peters or Someone else? Responses: 582 (Margin of Error ± 4.1% at 95% confidence level)

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